Alexis DeJoria takes a photo with her public relationships manger Allison McCormick at Bullseye on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 in San Rafael, Calif. DeJoria is a Funny Car driver who is a gun enthusiast who is ranked fifth in the Funny Car standings.

Photo: James Tensuan, The Chronicle

Alexis DeJoria takes a photo with her public relationships manger...

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Alexis DeJoria handles a gun during a training session at Bullseye on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 in San Rafael, Calif. DeJoria is a Funny Car driver who is a gun enthusiast who is ranked fifth in the Funny Car standings.

Photo: James Tensuan, The Chronicle

Alexis DeJoria handles a gun during a training session at Bullseye...

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Alexis DeJoria checks her score after shooting a game of Poker at Bullseye on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 in San Rafael, Calif. DeJoria is a Funny Car driver who is a gun enthusiast who is ranked fifth in the Funny Car standings.

Photo: James Tensuan, The Chronicle

Alexis DeJoria checks her score after shooting a game of Poker at...

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Alexis DeJoria, winning an elimination race at Sonoma in 2013, takes pride in earning her ride.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Alexis DeJoria, winning an elimination race at Sonoma in 2013,...

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Alexis DeJoria high fives fans during pre game festivities at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals July 21, 2013 at Bandimere speedway in Morrison.

Photo: John Leyba, DP

Alexis DeJoria high fives fans during pre game festivities at the...

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Alexis DeJoria goes through her burn out during the first round of the Funny Car competition at the MOPAR Mile High Nationals July 20, 2014 at Bandimere Speedway.

Photo: John Leyba, DP

Alexis DeJoria goes through her burn out during the first round of...

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Antron Brown, left, and Alexis DeJoria, right, celebrate their wins at the NHRA drag racing, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, near Phoenix in Chandler, Ariz. This was Brown's third Top Fuel win at the track and the first career Funny Cary win in the series.

In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexis DeJoria straps herself into her funny car in Jupiter, Fla. She is a tattooed mom, an heiress to a billiondollar empire, and she has been drag racing competitively since 2005. DeJoria, 34, is a ranked National Hot Rod Association driver and the second woman to win a National event in funny car.

Photo: J Pat Carter, AP

In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexis DeJoria straps...

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Alexis DeJoria celebrates her first career NHRA drag race for the Funny Car victory, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, in Chandler, Ariz. She is the 14th female driver to win an NHRA Mello Yello Series race and the fourth to do it in Funny Car.

Photo: Jerry Foss, AP

Alexis DeJoria celebrates her first career NHRA drag race for the...

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John Pul DeJoria owner of the Patron Spirits Company and John Paul Mitchell Systems and daughter race care driver Alexis DeJoria arrive at the Ultimat Vodka LA Launch at The Kress
Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008, in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles.

Photo: Gus Ruelas

John Pul DeJoria owner of the Patron Spirits Company and John Paul...

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In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexis DeJoria's photo decorates the back of her haul trailer at a racetrack in Jupiter, Fla. She is a tattooed mom, an heiress to a billion-dollar empire, and she has been drag racing competitively since 2005. DeJoria, 34, is a ranked National Hot Rod Association driver and the second woman to win a National event in funny car. (

Photo: J Pat Carter, AP

In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexis DeJoria's photo...

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In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexi DeJoria talks about her racing career in Jupiter, Fla. She is a tattooed mom, an heiress to a billion-dollar empire, and she has been drag racing competitively since 2005. DeJoria, 34, is a ranked National Hot Rod Association driver and the second woman to win a National event in funny car.

In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexis DeJoria shows some of her tattoos as she prepares for a race at a racetrack in Jupiter, Fla. She is a tattooed mom, an heiress to a billion-dollar empire, and she has been drag racing competitively since 2005. DeJoria, 34, is a ranked National Hot Rod Association driver and the second woman to win a National event in funny car.

Photo: J Pat Carter, AP

In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexis DeJoria shows some of...

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In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexis DeJoria straps herself into her funny car in Jupiter, Fla. She is a tattooed mom, an heiress to a billion-dollar empire, and she has been drag racing competitively since 2005. DeJoria, 34, is a ranked National Hot Rod Association driver and the second woman to win a National event in funny car.

Photo: J Pat Carter, AP

In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexis DeJoria straps herself...

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In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexi DeJoria talks about her racing career in Jupiter, Fla. She is a tattooed mom, an heiress to a billion-dollar empire, and she has been drag racing competitively since 2005. DeJoria, 34, is a ranked National Hot Rod Association driver and the second woman to win a National event in funny car.

Photo: J Pat Carter, AP

In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexi DeJoria talks about her...

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In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexis DeJoria watches as her crew works on her race car in Jupiter, Fla. She is a tattooed mom, an heiress to a billion-dollar empire, and she has been drag racing competitively since 2005. DeJoria, 34, is a ranked National Hot Rod Association driver and the second woman to win a National event in funny car.

Photo: J Pat Carter, AP

In this photo taken, Jan. 20, 2012, Alexis DeJoria watches as her...

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In this photo submitted by the NHRA, Alexis DeJoria secures the No. 1 qualifying position in Funny Car for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, Saturday, May 17, 2014, in Commerce, Ga. This is her first career No. 1 qualifier.

Photo: Marx Gewertz, AP

In this photo submitted by the NHRA, Alexis DeJoria secures the No....

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Lynne Veronda, left, and Alexis DeJoria fire guns at Bullseye on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 in San Rafael, Calif. DeJoria is a Funny Car driver who is a gun enthusiast who is ranked fifth in the Funny Car standings. Veronda is an employee of Bullseye.

Photo: James Tensuan, The Chronicle

Lynne Veronda, left, and Alexis DeJoria fire guns at Bullseye on...

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Alexis DeJoria, left, speaks with Lynne Veronda in-between rounds of shooting at Bullseye on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 in San Rafael, Calif. DeJoria is a Funny Car driver who is a gun enthusiast who is ranked fifth in the Funny Car standings.

Photo: James Tensuan, The Chronicle

Alexis DeJoria, left, speaks with Lynne Veronda in-between rounds...

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Alexis DeJoria talks to members of the press at Bullseye on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 in San Rafael, Calif. DeJoria is a Funny Car driver who is a gun enthusiast who is ranked fifth in the Funny Car standings.

Photo: James Tensuan, The Chronicle

Alexis DeJoria talks to members of the press at Bullseye on...

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Alexis DeJoria, left, and Lynne Veronda share a laugh at Bullseye on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 in San Rafael, Calif. DeJoria is a Funny Car driver who is a gun enthusiast who is ranked fifth in the Funny Car standings. Veronda is an employee of Bullseye.

On the side, she rides motorcycles and dirt bikes, sky-dives and snowboards. Her day job is even more adventurous. She pilots a 300-mph, 10,000-horsepower Funny Car in the country's top drag-racing circuit.

Alexis DeJoria doesn't mind being called a daredevil or a speed junkie. That other tag - billionaire heiress - bothers her a little bit, though.

"We get such a bad rap," she said, as if there's an actual community of billionaire heiresses. She didn't want to name names but said, "There's been women who have been in the public eye and haven't done so well with their names."

To be sure, DeJoria, 36, has had plenty of help along the way from her dad, John Paul DeJoria, who founded the Paul Mitchell line of hair-care products and Patron Spirits Company, which sponsors her Toyota Camry race car. Forbes pegs his worth at $3.1 billion.

In a decade as a professional drag racer, she has made a point of paying her dues at each stop along the way. This season has been a breakout year for her. She won two of the first four events - beating current points leader Robert Hight in the finals at Phoenix and Las Vegas - and is sixth in the Funny Car standings going into this week's NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway.

During a recent appearance at Bullseye, an indoor shooting range in San Rafael, she said guns are one of her hobbies but drag racing is her passion.

It was important for her to come up through the ranks "because I didn't have any background in it," she said. "The way I was raised, with very strong work ethics, nothing was handed to me.

"Nothing was handed to my father, either. He's been an inspiration not just to his family but to a lot of people in the world."

As a little girl, she played with Matchbox cars before breaking bones and getting her chin split open in skateboard mishaps. Her father took part in cannonball car races and owned a couple of stock cars.

Alexis started out working in the hair-products company but decided that what she really wanted to do was to drive fast. She fell in love with drag racing at age 16. About the same time, her dad let her take the wheel of his Vector M12 sports car while on a trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

"That was my first experience at going 200 mph on a safe road," she said. "I guess I was just born with an attraction to race cars."

And to jet fighters. At age 5, she wanted to be a fighter pilot. Two years ago, a few Air Force pilots she met at an NHRA event invited her to ride in an F-15E Strike Eagle at a base in Idaho. She weathered their attempts to make her get sick or faint, she said.

"They tried every trick in the book. They went into a straight vertical climb, barrel rolls, hard banks," she said.

They even let her take the controls, and she zipped along at a brisk Mach 1. She commemorated the event by having a picture of the plane tattooed on her right arm.

She had her extensive tattoo collection before her marriage a year and a half ago to Jesse James, who derived his TV celebrity from various reality shows dealing with his custom-made motorcycle business. He used to be married to, among three others, actress Sandra Bullock.

DeJoria and James met at a racetrack in Dallas in 2012 - he had sponsored a drag-racing team - and it was a match made in love, nitromethane and body art.

Someday, she'd like to team with her husband in an off-road race in Baja California. That couldn't be more dangerous than her current venture. In 2009, she wrecked her drag racer when the parachutes snapped off the rear end in Englishtown, N.J. She barreled through the safety nets and sand pits, crumpled the front of the car and walked away unscathed.

After several years in the Top Alcohol Funny Car division, she progressed to the nitro cars but started with a couple of frustrating seasons. This year, things have been clicking for her with Kalitta Motorsports. She became the first woman to break four seconds (3.997) in a Funny Car during qualifying in Pomona (Los Angeles County) and later recorded her two wins.

Still, it's not easy for the half-dozen women or so who compete in the premier drag-racing circuit, she said. Like the other women, she wants to be taken seriously.

"It's still a very male-dominated sport," she said. "They almost want you to fail. They expect you to fail. The way I carried myself, I'm all about the racing. I'm not about the image and what kind of name I could make for myself.